judge them. What, this fellow, a stranger, control iis ! And Satan heads this mutinous rout against the Christian : so that if God did not continually rein- force this his new planted colony in the heart, the very natives (I mean cor- ruptions) that are left would come out of their dens and holes where they lie lurking, and eat up the little grace the holiest on earth hath ; it would be as bread to these devourers.
3. A third demonstration may be taken from the grand design which God propounds to himself in the saint's salvation ; yea, in the transaction of it from lirst to last ; and that is twofold.
First, God would bring his saints to heaven in such a way, as might be most expressive of his love and mercy to them.
Secondly, He would so express his love and mercy to them, as might rebound back to him in the highest advance of his own glory possible : now how be- coming this is to both, that saints should have all their ability for every step they take in the way to heaven, will soon appear.
1. This way of communicating strength to saints gives a double accent to God's love and mercy.
First, it distils a sweetness into all that the believer hath or doth, when he finds any comfort in his bosom, any enlargement of heart to duty, any support under temptations : to consider whence come all these, what friend sends them in. They come not from my own cistern, or any creatures : O it is my God that hath been here, and left this sweet perfume of comfort behind him in my bosom ; my God, that hath, unawares to me, filled my sails with the gales of his Spirit, and brought me off the flats of my own deadness, where I lay aground. O it is his sweet Spirit that held my head, stayed my heart in such an affliction and temptation, or else I had gone away in a fainting fit of unbelief. How can this but endear God to a gracious soul ? His succours coming so immediately from heaven, which would be lost, if the Christian had any strength to help liimself (though this stock of strength came at first from God.) Which, think you, speaks more love and condescension, for a prince to give a pension to a favourite, on which he may live by his own care ; or for this prince to take the chief care upon himself, and come from day to day to this man's house, and look into his cupboard, and see what provision he hath, what expense he is at, and so constantly to provide for the man from time to time ? Possibly some proud spirit, that likes to be his own man, or loves his means better than his prince, would prefer the former ; but one that is ambitious to have the heart and love of his prince would be ravished with the latter. Thus God doth with his saints ; the great God comes and looks into their cupboard, and sees how they are laid in, and sends in accordingly as he finds them. Your heavenly Father knows you have need of these things, and you shall have them. He knows you need strength to pray, hear, suflfer for him, and m ipsa hord dahitur.
Secondly, This way of God's dealing with his saints adds to the fulness and stability of their strength. Were the stock in our own hands, we should soon prove broken merchants. God knows we are but leaking vessels ; when fullest, we could not hold it long ; and therefore, to make all sure, he set us under the streamings forth of his strength ; and a leaking vessel imder a cock, gets what it loseth. Thus we have our leakage supplied continually. This was the pro- vision God made for Israel in the wilderness ; he clave the rock, and the rock followed them. They had not only a draught at present, but it ran in a stream after them ; so that you hear no more of their complaints for water : this rock was Christ. Every believer hath Christ at his back, following him with strength as he goes, for every condition and trial. One flower with the root is worth many in a posy, which though sweet, yet do not grow, but wither as we wear them in our bosoms. God's strength, as the root, keeps our grace lively, without which, though as orient as Adam's was, it would die.
2. The second design God hath in his saints' happiness is, that he may so express his mercy and love to them, as may rebound back to him in the highest advance of his own glory therein, Eph. i. 4, 12 ; which is fully attained in his way of empowering saints, by a strength not of their own, but of their God's sending, as they are put in expense. Had God given his saints a stock of grace to have set up with, and left them to the improvement of it, he had been
BE STRONG JN THE LORD. J|